Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego has won Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, becoming the first Latino to represent the state in the Senate, defeating far-right insurrectionist Kari Lake.
Gallego will replace Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who ran as a centrist and charted a path for Democrats to win elections in the right-wing state but then consistently obstructed her party’s priorities in the Senate . She did not stand for re-election.
While the presidential race was neck and neck throughout the election, Gallego remained several points ahead of Lake throughout the campaign, an unlikely position for a progressive congressman trying to win a battleground state. Gallego also outperformed Lake in fundraising, earning him more local airtime and mailbox presence.
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Ultimately, he defeated Lake with 50% of the vote to her 48%, while Trump easily defeated Harris in the state.
“Gracias, Arizona!” Gallego wrote on the social platform X. He planned to speak to his supporters during a press conference on Monday evening.
After Gallego’s victory, Democrats will have 47 seats in the 100-member Senate, compared to 52 for Republicans, erasing Democrats’ previous majority in the chamber.
Republicans flipped Democratic-controlled Senate seats in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Montana. In the last three cases, defeated Senators Sherrod Brown, Bob Casey and Jon Tester all had leads over Harris but could not overcome their states’ shifts toward the Republicans.
Lake ran into trouble trying to win over moderate Republicans and independent voters, both of whom needed a win. The attacks she made on the late U.S. Senator John McCain reverberated, and so-called McCain Republicans were divided over their support for her.
Lake ran for governor in 2022 and lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Lake has yet to accept the results of that election.
The Republican effort was more focused on Trump’s attempt to turn the state red again after he lost there in the smallest victory nationwide in 2020. The billboards funded by the Arizona Republican Party boasting of “team unity” did not include Lake included. Instead, Trump was pictured alongside out-of-staters such as JD Vance, Elon Musk, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Vivek Ramaswamy and Tulsi Gabbard.
Arizona has had six senators in just over a decade, creating an endless stream of expensive elections for these coveted seats. Republicans there have moved to the right of the electorate, creating an opening for Democrats to make a case for new residents and suburbs moving to the left.
Gallego was often able to tell his personal story during his campaign. He is the son of Mexican and Colombian immigrants, who was raised by his mother and worked odd jobs at meatpacking plants and pizza shops to earn extra money for his family. He then graduated from Harvard and joined the Marine Corps, where he deployed to Iraq as part of a unit that saw some of the war’s heaviest casualties.
Lake broke the news for decades as an anchor for the local Fox affiliate in Phoenix, bringing her into Arizonans’ homes every day. Growing up in Iowa, she said she was the youngest of nine children and called herself a “mama bear.” She has embraced Trump and the Maga movement, happily saying, “You can call me Trump in a dress any day.”
Lauren Gambino contributed reporting
